It’s this month’s issue of IDW Publishing’s Star Trek comic series: the final installment of “Legacy of Spock,” the next adventure in the new Five Year Mission.
There’s three choices of comic covers to pick from this month:
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- Tony Shasteen starts off the covers to collect with a fantastic triptych of Spock on the regular cover. The galaxy’s most famous Vulcan is shown at three specific points in his life.The left side of the illustration is Spock from the television series, the middle from the films, and the right from his final appearance in the J.J. Abrams’s films. A fantastic idea for a cover with smart coloring (blue, red, and gold) used to emphasize each era.
- The subscription cover shows Kirk standing ready with a phaser. Behind him is Spock in profile, the delta shield, and a swirling mass that looks like a planet. This is a good layout by artist Alberto Silva, but Kirk’s face is just a bit off: his lips and eyebrows are really thick. Everything else on this, including the soft colors, looks great.
- The last cover is one to track down: a photo collage cover created by Tom B. Long for the exclusive Montreal Comic Con cover. This is set up as a classic Dell Comic cover featuring iconic images of William Shatner as Kirk, Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, and the U.S.S. Enterprise. Outstanding!
“It has all come down to this. War in orbit over Ceti Alpha V. The Romulan empire has sent their fleet to eliminate the last surviving Vulcans, who seek to build a new home on this world.” So begins Spock’s narration as the reader looks at Vulcan ships being destroyed in orbit.
The iconic character is watching the one-sided battle from the planet’s surface. His father arrives and tells him he’s welcome to watch the battle from inside the camp, but Spock changes the subject to the emotional reaction from the council not to ask Starfleet for help.
In orbit the two surviving Romulans of Nero’s crew are readying to release the last of the red matter to destroy the last of their enemies. Back on New Vulcan, the inhabitants realize they will lose before the red matter is even released. “The logical course of action is to ensure the survival of our heritage and evacuate the elders at once!”
Things take a turn for the better on Page 5 and Mike Johnson has his story soar into heroic territory. The situation begins to turn, but Johnson rightly refocuses the characters and the reader’s attention to the true threat.
The conflict is resolved in a wonderfully emotional way that firmly grabs on to the reader’s heart and does not let go. Even after this crisis is resolved, the Vulcan’s new home world is an issue and they refuse to go. How this is addressed is also well done. If the reader assumes there is nothing to do after this, he or she is happily wrong.
I got goosebumps the first time I read the ending, and I’m getting them again writing this review. Johnson has given Spock the finale he deserves.
This issue begins with a jaw dropping full-paged splash of the smaller Romulan ships destroying the larger ships of the Vulcan fleet. It’s absolute chaos as the antagonists zip about destroying the Vulcan ships, which are exploding everywhere.
The second page is a sharp transition from the first, showing the arid surface of Ceti Alpha V as Spock and his father speak. The third page starts with a panel that makes the reader recall the movement of the red matter from the 2009 film. The two Romulans look great as they plan their fates.
The top of Page 4 has an outstanding layout showing a hologram of the battle surrounded by containers the Vulcans have yet to unpack. Page 6 is a spectacular entrance and it’s particularly neat to see that one laser blast cut into the bottom panel; directing the reader’s focus from the battle back to the inhabitants on the planet.
The characters and ship exteriors are exceptional work. This story wouldn’t have half its emotional pull if Tony Shasteen’s visuals didn’t work. This book is a love letter to Leonard Nimoy. I was afraid Shasteen was peaking too soon with the sensational full page splash on 16.
However, the next two pages are sensational. The exteriors are, again, the artist’s Achilles heel: the second and third panels on 2, every shot of the Enterprise’s bridge, and the mountains and statues on 20. I wish these elements were stronger.
Davide Mastrolonardo provides some strong work that assists the reader in transitioning between this book’s settings: faded tans for the planet’s surface, cool blue’s for the Enterprise’s interiors, and faded greens for the insides of the Romulan ships.
Mastrolonardo does an outstanding job shading characters’ skin, making Shasteen’s art three dimensional. The final four pages are the best, creating the perfect warm environment.
Dialogue, narration, and scene settings (the same font), transmissions, and the final line of the text are created by AndWorld Design. Sounds would have made the conflict in space more thrilling, but that’s not AndWorld’s decision.
However, a different font could and should have been used for the first three elements.
